Michelle Obama on The Late Show: I’m Not Watching the RNC

Michelle Obama was on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight (unembeddable video of the full episode is here, and Ms. Obama comes onstage in the third segment, around 15:30). On the night of the Paul Ryan speech at the Republican National Convention, Ms. Obama talked some light subjects, including Sasha and Malia’s summer at sleep-away camp and hide-and-seek games she used to play as a child. The conversation moved to Ms. Obama’s campaign for improving the quality of nutrition in school lunches, then to the RNC, and, haltingly, Ms. Obama admitted, “I didn’t watch it,” though she encouraged Americans not married to the President to do so. (A brief highlight reel cut by CBS, featuring Ms. Obama hedging on a question about Rep. Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comments, is below.)

After Jodi Kantor’s book The Obamas, released this year, alleged that Michelle Obama had an aversion to campaigning, but Ms. Obama has been a focused media representative of the campaign so far this campaign season, appearing on both The Late Show and Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, The Daily Show, CBS This Morning, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In the near future, she will appear on Rachael Ray’s and Dr. Mehmet Oz’s daytime shows.